August 31, 2011
The Rędziński Bridge, which spans the section of the Oder river in the city of Wrocław in southwestern Poland, was officially opened. This cable-stayed bridge is a part of the A8 motorway, and that 16.7-mile (26.8-kilometer) route was likewise opened to vehicular traffic on the same day. With a total length of 1.1 miles (1.7 kilometers) and a pylon that is 400 feet (122 meters) in height, the Rędziński Bridge is both the longest and tallest bridge in Poland.
The Rędziński Bridge was designed by Jan Biliszczuk, a professor of engineering at the Wrocław University of Technology. Construction on this bridge began in 2008. Those building the bridge informally called it the Rędziński Bridge because it crossed over Rędzińska Island there in the Oder river. At around the time of the bridge’s opening, the Wroçław bureau of the General Directorate for National Roads and Motorways (part of the Polish government’s Ministry Infrastructure) held a naming competition for the newly completed structure. “Rędziński” won that competition with 55 percent of the votes cast.
Donald Tusk, who served as prime minister of Poland from 2007 to 2014, paid a visit to the bridge shortly before its public debut. He proclaimed at the time, “This, I think, is a very good place and a very good moment to say that Poland is really under construction in a breathtaking way, at least in some places.”
Photo Credit: Łukasz Czyżykowski (licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en)
Additional information on the Rędziński Bridge is available at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C4%99dzi%C5%84ski_Bridge
For more information on the A8 motorway, please check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A8_autostrada_(Poland)
Transportation History 